Alumni News - December 2022

William “Bill” Brenzovich Sr. ’71 received the Jean C. Harris Award for Excellence from the Hanover County Community Services Board in Hanover, Virginia. Named for a founding board member, the Harris Award is given annually to recipients who are passionate about serving the community. Brenzovich, who earned a degree in sociology at Roanoke, has dedicated more than a decade in service to individuals with behavioral health and developmental needs. He represented the Mechanicsville District on the Hanover County Community Services Board from 2011-2019 and was just reappointed for a new three-year term. He also has represented his region on the Virginia Association of Community Service Boards since 2016, serving as vice chair and chair. “The VACSB is stronger for Bill’s tenure and statewide advocacy efforts,” board leadership said. “We are grateful for his generous service to better the lives of Virginia’s most vulnerable residents.”

Forest Jones ’95 received an honorable mention in the nonfiction essay or article category of the 91st Writer's Digest Annual Writing Competition for an essay he co-wrote with his son, Anton Jones. The essay, titled “William G. Dabney: ‘I wasn’t afraid of the D-Day invasion, but I didn’t think I’d come out alive,” is about an African-American D-Day veteran from Roanoke, Virginia. Jones earned a degree in history at Roanoke, then went on to receive a master’s in history at Hollins University and a doctorate in educational leadership and policy from Virginia Tech. He lives in Salem, where he is director of administrative services for Salem City Schools. In his spare time, he writes fiction and non-fiction, including crime, thrillers and short stories.

Beth (Hylton) Dalton '04 is preparing for her next assignment with the U.S. Foreign Service, which will be at the U.S. Embassy in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea.

As a general services officer (GSO), Dalton is responsible for management of physical resources and logistical functions at the embassy. That includes overseeing programs such as contracting, warehousing, inventory, shipping and customs, housing, travel and official visitor support.

Dalton, who grew up in Roanoke, obtained a degree in political science at Roanoke College and later earned an M.S. in management from University of Maryland Global Campus. Following graduation from Roanoke, she served in the Army before going to work as a contractor for the Department of Defense.

For the next several years, Dalton did publications and public relations work for multiple federal agencies, including the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation, Defense Information Systems Agency, Naval Research Laboratory and Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. She said the intensive writing and analysis expected of her from professors at Roanoke College prepared her for the rigors of those jobs.

After joining the U.S. Foreign Service in 2018, Dalton worked as a consular officer in both China and Jamaica before receiving her latest assignment.  

To prepare for her new job in Malabo, which will begin in June 2023, Dalton is currently undergoing training at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. Her lessons include intensive language study, because she will have to be essentially fluent in Spanish in order to carry out her work in Equatorial Guinea.

"I am not a polyglot by nature," Dalton said, "but learning Spanish is much easier than learning Chinese!"

Dalton's assignment in Equatorial Guinea will last for two years. Joining her there will be her husband, Trev, whom she met through a Roanoke College friend, Shaun Morgan; and their two dogs, a German Shepherd named Bailey and a mixed breed (or "brown dog," as Dalton said) named Belle.

Dalton said she loves her work in part because it takes her to different corners of the world.

"You get to immerse yourself in a new culture and explore places that are vastly different than any place you have ever been before," she said.

Heart & Spade Forge, a Roanoke-based blacksmith shop founded and operated by Jed Curtis ’13, has been named first runner-up in the home category of the Made in the South Awards, an annual contest conducted by Garden & Gun and Explore Asheville to shine a light on Southern-made products.

Heart & Spade Forge was recognized for the beautiful carbon steel cookware that Curtis forges by hand and crafts from scratch using small-batch processes and raw materials from mills in Roanoke, Virginia, and South Carolina.

“To be recognized by peers on the national stage is incredible,” he said.

Curtis has been taken with blacksmithing since he was 5 years old, when he discovered the art during a first-grade field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia. By age 15, he had constructed his own smithy and began creating his own designs. Shortly after, he met his mentor, New York-based blacksmith Mitch Fitzgibbons, and learned that Fitzgibbons was retiring. Curtis bought the contents of his shop and, in 2016, set up Heart & Spade as a full-time endeavor.

Curtis earned a degree in chemistry at Roanoke College, and he said he regularly uses that knowledge in his daily work.

“I see my skillets as a merger of science, craft and art,” he said. “Each piece is a living thing that improves with age and gains complexity over time. Think of it as creating a blank canvas for the chef. Each skillet will take on a life of its own based on the chef's idiosyncrasies and rituals; it becomes a mirror.”

Curtis told Garden & Gun that he is inspired by the idea that his products will be passed down through generations of families. “A family skillet is a unifier,” he said. “I’m not as much making them for you as I’m making them for your grandkids.”

Curtis is married to Hannah (Cline) Curtis ’15, who is a media relations consultant at Carilion Clinic. The couple live in Roanoke with their two dogs.

Check out Curtis’ business and products at heartandspadeforge.com.